Video games as rites of passage: Exploring liminal rhetoric in Oxenfree

Video games can serve as platforms to explore different emotions and identities in a safe space. In her article ‘Liminal Rhetoric in Girlhood Games: Developmental Disruption in Night School Studio’s Oxenfree’ on the Game Studies journal, Stephanie Harkin (2021) describes video games’ potential to offer liminal spaces in which players (girl players in particular) may explore girlhood in a fantasy setting. The term ‘liminal space’ often conjures up nostalgic and otherworldly images – simultaneously fantastical and familiar. The article goes into detail on exploring the concepts of liminality and anti-structure and goes on to view the importance of these concepts in video games with coming-of-age themes. The adventure game Oxenfree (2016) is used as a case study.

Her main point in the article is to display how in the game Oxenfree, the protagonist’s fate defies the normative society’s expectation of entering the post-liminal state as she is forever trapped in the liminal space in a haunting turn of events, and how this aspect of the game offers a different point of view for girl players who themselves resonate with the liminal space experience. In the case of Oxenfree and many other video games, the fantastical liminal world offers a safe space for girl players to exercise leadership and much more. Harkin (2021) explains that as game spaces aren’t restricted by the regulations of the real world, players are free to explore alternative identities and forms of resistance.

Stephanie Harkin is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Media and Communications at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on girls’ experiences on digital culture, representations of girlhood in media and coming-of-age themes in video games. This article is a great example of the kind of research she is best known for. The paper leans more on theoretical rather than empirical research, since there was no experiment to draw conclusions from. She utilizes her vast knowledge on the themes discussed by reciting research material consistently throughout the paper to bring forth the context in which the themes have been discussed, as well as the ongoing scientific discourse of her peers, mainly in feminist research.

In this article, Harkin (2021) explores video games’ importance and role in giving girls a space in which to explore girlhood in a setting free from the expectations, limits and realities of their everyday life, and how these experiences in video games may offer transformative experiences that may impact the players’ lives and/or identity. She (2021) explains that girlhood studies only have minimal representation in the field of video game studies compared to other mainstream media such as films, books, comics etc., and sees that the agency provided by video games may in fact make them the most ideal medium for girls to have transformative and empowering experiences in relation to their girlhood. The case study of Oxenfree especially focuses on the liminal space aspect of video games.

The concept of liminality, coined initially by Arnold van Gennep ([1909] 1960) in his anthropological research, refers to the transitional phases he observed in various cultures. He identifies a formulaic three-part pattern: the pre-liminal rites (separation), liminal rites (transition) and post-liminal rites (reincorporation). This pattern can reflect a subject’s growth from childhood to adulthood, in which liminal space can be understood as the uncertain space between childhood and entering ‘adult world (and obeying by it’s rules)’. She draws this understanding of liminality on Victor Turner’s observations on initiation and what he calls “anti-structure”, which refers to socio-cultural structures that intentionally counteract the mainstream. In Harkin’s article, she uses the term ‘liminal space’ to describe the world in which adolescent girl video game protagonists operate.

Harkin, Stephanie (2021), Liminal Rhetoric in Girlhood Games: Developmental Disruption in Night School Studio’s Oxenfree. Game Studies 21(3) 1604-7982 http://gamestudies.org/2103/articles/harkin

Images: Official promo pictures for Oxenfree (Night School Studio)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/388880/Oxenfree/

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Helisa Hallamaa

A media student passionate about gritty story-based video games, pop culture from the 2000's and the wider cultural representations in games. Loves discussions about art direction, music and different interpretations. Enthusiastic about scheming-based board games.

##research ##liminalspaces ##oxenfree